1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to license keys and more particularly relates to managing license keys.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing systems often use license keys to limit access to software and/or data to authorized users. For example, a data processing system may only allow a user with a specified license key to access a data store. Alternatively, the data processing system may only allow a user with a specified license key to use a software application.
A license key may be number of a specified length. The license key may be employed by a mathematical algorithm to decrypt encrypted data. Alternately, the license key may be a public key of a public/private key pair. The public license key may encrypt a message that is decrypted by the private key.
Data processing systems are often heterogeneous environments, with hardware components and software from many vendors working together. As a result, standards have been developed to coordinate interoperability between hardware and software components from different vendors.
For example, the Storage Networking Industry Association's Storage Management Initiative (SMI) was created to develop and standardize interoperable storage management technologies for the storage, networking and end user communities. The Storage Networking Industry Association published a SMI specification (SMI-S) that includes a Common Information Model (CIM). The CIM defines software classes that can be used to create objects that facilitate communications between disparate hardware and software components.
Unfortunately, SMI-S CIM does not include classes for objects that manage license keys. As a result, vendors often must employ ad hoc solutions to manage license keys in data processing systems.